baby food in Poland - culture differences in feeding babies.

Hi, I'm working on cultural differences in baby food during the weaning period and I compare different European Countries...

What food do polish babies eat at first after milk? Carrot puree? Fruits? Other? At what age (4, 5, 6 months old, or earlier, are there recommendations?) weaning in generally done in Poland? Is it adviced to give homemade food (more tasty) or industrial baby food (more qualitative) or both? What kind of vegetables are most frequently given?

Thanks!

I have seen all kinds of baby foods in Poland -- formulas, strained bottled things (Gerber's and Polish brands such as Bobofrut). Helath-conscious mothers still seem to pefrer home-cooked and strained or blender-proceesed foods, but I haven't seen any statistics on this.

If you do this... don't add salt.

Advice? That was the main difference I found here - zero advice. I had my first baby in a North American country and there was a wealth of advice on what (not) to do [according to the then-current beliefs].

I do remember being told in Poland - with child#2 that it was time he was on meat -- he was 3 months old at the time and that was a head of department (haematology I think that one was).

There also seems to be a booming infants fruit-juice industry ... children with bottles of coloured liquid hanging off their lips everywhere you turn.

That seems very early to me. In fact too early. Five or six months, I'd say.

He didn't get it. We addressed the anaemia with iron drops and I kept to my own ideas of what he should have and when.

Iron drops .. now there's a dilemma. The instructions said to give them half-way between meals on an empty stomach. Just the thing for a strong-willed, fast-growing baby who wants his stomach to be constantly full of formula :D

They have a huge selection of baby food over here...compared to Australia.
Using my bf nephew has an example, he was being weaned of breast milk just after a year old and I would say that majority of the time he eats bought baby food.

Yogurt seems to be popular too, definitely banana...owever in Poland they always tell me to take the tip of the banana because it carries bacteria, so anyone out there who could tell me if this is true? Vegetable juices too are popular and there is baby water with minerals.

in Canada the recommendation is breastmilk or formula until 6 months of age then you can start introducing iron fortified cereal. there is more talk about having meat be the first food, as well as introducing vegetables before fruit. babies don't need any additional liquid besides breastmilk or formula. probably as they get a close to 1 you can add water as a liquid, but stay away from juices because of all the added sugar.

i am curious to know what the practices are in Poland also.

Do you realise what a load of rubbish you "breast are best" people spout and how much damage you cause to peoples lives.

Go with the flow with your baby if they need more use formula milk . The most important part is to spend your time with your child and not stuff it off with a childminder, like many people do.

The child will remember being stuffed off with a childminder, but will forget totally being breastfed.

which is why i mentioned formula you idot.

I also agree that it's the time you spend with your baby that is the most important, regardless of whether you breastfeed or use formula.

so easy on the attack there Lexi, I am not a breast is best radical.

I think you have to really look into that is good for the baby and what companies try to sell. I think 3 months is too early. In more natural settings like native Americans I think babies really start to eat food besides mother's milk when their teeth start to develop. It makes sense.

Rot in children's front teeth is very common here -- baby bottle-mouth.
Young children - 3, 4 years old - with a line of black teeth along the front.
That must say something about what the babies are being given to drink, and how.

And also what's important is for women to go and work and show their children a little bit of work eithic! In a perfect world lexi (maybe you live in this lovely place) women would love to stay at home with their children, but there is a little thing call real life where we have to pay bills and feed and cloth children!


Really? hours of playing with other kids developing intersocial skills?

Hours of anxiety, waiting for their mothers to return and release them from this abandonment that they feel every day. Toddler groups, accompanied by parents are a perfect example to provide social interaction, secure in the knowledge that their mothers are supporting them.

"cut your cloth accordingly is what I say"

LOL...show me the evidence that children who spend time with child minders or nannys turn out to be mass murderers!


Sorry what is your point, you see, the above isn't going to get the bills paid.


lexi we live in a country where a large proportion of children already live on or below the poverty line...if people trim away at the cloth any further they are likely to freeze to death for lack of it! You seem to live in some fantasy land!

Sorry. I apoligise I just thought you were one of those fanatics.

No problem. I understand.
sorry if i came across too strong.

Hey, seems some discussion is far from your query... In POland general advice is (or has been 5 yrs ago) to start weaning at 4 mths if bottle fed and after 6 if breastfed. 1st traditional things you give at either age are very finely grated carrots (raw), not seen graters suitable in IE thiugh. Then you try apple or combination of the 2. Generaly one starts with one ingredient at a time before combining, and mostly native veg and fruit. Veg puree made of boiled potatoes, carrots, celeriac, parsnips is typical. I guess ready0made meals tend to be quite popular for convenience, home-made better if you use organic stuff. meat like chicken, turkey, rabbit introduced 6-8-months, stuff like eggs, veal or beef, pork, tomatoes, peppers, diary closer to 9-12 mnths. DIfferent in IE - egg custard, diary desserts all form 4-6 mths onwards. My all time anti-favuriote: beans, bacon and tomotoes as 'baby favourite' range...4-6 mths onwards...No comments

after reading all of the above post's, I just had to put my two-cent's in for what it's worth!.

I was raised by a work at home mom (my mom was first generation born here, Lithuanian / American), and having been breast fed, I believe (for myself that is), that I have a better relationship along with a great deal of respect for the female breast, now, having said that, from what I understand (that is), not all women can or do breast feed their babies for many reason's, but, "they" say (who ever "they" are that is), the best thing (food wise) for baby is mom's milk, so, I think, in this day and age, it's a balancing act for many!.

Once, upon a time (long, long ago, in a far of Galaxy, LOL) a Wet Nurse was not uncommon to be found (A wet nurse is a woman who breast-feeds a baby that is not her own. These children may be known as milk-siblings and in some cultures share a special relationship). but, thank's to good folk's at Gerber (and other Companies), that profession has gone the way of the Candlestick maker and whale oil salesmen!. LOL!.

I am very interested to see what posting's follow this one!, LOL! :-q Scott :-)

Breast milk, my breat milk, my big breast milk. Where my breasts, ohh the babies got them.

you see how easy it can be.

LOL. You want to make us all believe that there are no bookshops, Internet and magazines in Poland?
There's plenty of stuff written on babies here. Afaik, even during the communist times it was not a problem to get some info.

WB are you suffering from sleep deprivation?..:)

I'm American and I have 2 children. Both pregnancies and births took place in Poland.

In the hospital it was assumed that mothers would breastfeed. I wanted to breastfeed so I did not see this assumption as pressure but if I had not wanted to breastfeed I probably would have felt differently. The nurses did not spare those non-breastfeeding moms rude comments. Nothing cuts more deeply to a new mom than a medical professional telling you that you are harming your child and not every new mom has the backbone or the energy to stand up to those criticisms. I was criticized for not giving my child a pacifier but I conveniently didn't understand Polish at that moment.

Later, a mid-wife comes to your home and it was also her assumption that I was breastfeeding (or maybe it was my huge breasts?) Anyhow, she suggested all kinds of drops and teas (herbatki) and juices and glucose!!!! for my baby. I didn't take her advice and the doctor laughed, saying breastmilk was enough for now.

I could find (in Polish of course) tons of info about breastfeeding, formula feeding, weaning, introducing solids on my own and was given lots of info from the hospital, the doctor and even my gynecologist. The recommendations here are the same as in the US. In habit, I find that more women here breastfeed and that they do so longer. It could be connected to the length of maternity leave which is often shorter in the US.

A lot of my friends make their own baby food and I made some of my own as well but only because we have a lot of fruit trees at home. I did not see that there was any stigma to using store bought baby food. It seems to be the norm and the assortment is very good. I did find that quite a few people season the store bought food by adding salt or sugar which we all know is not a good idea and can even be dangerous for a baby's little organs. I noticed that on some "mommy" shows on TV they talked about not salting but later gave recipes for children's dishes with parówki (hot dogs) for kids as young as 6 months. Go figure.

Back to the breastfeeding- I easily weaned my first child at about 10 months but my second child is allergic to dairy and our doctor thinks it is safe to assume that I will breastfeed her indefinitely. She has even said something like -it's the least you can do as a mother-.

I also noticed a lot of my friends give their children (I mean older kids, like 2+) milk or formula at night in bed or rice cereal in a bottle in the morning. Some also give juice at night. I give my children water throughout the day and at night if they need it. I can only imagine what those kids teeth must look like.

Hope that my answer was helpful. Good luck with your research.